Tuesday, 8 November 2016

Time Travel Synthesis

In
Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series, the Danellians appear in different
forms. At the beginning of his Patrol career, Manse Everard sees a
blazing shape. Much later, he meets a benign humanoid being of
indeterminate race, age or sex. In Doctor Who, the Time Lords
periodically "regenerate." They are rejuvenated and their appearance
changes, i.e., a different actor plays the part. Both groups are masters
of time travel. Thus, could they be the same group? See here.

Is
the Doctor's humanoid appearance a mere appearance? On TV, he once said
that the TARDIS's appearance was here but that its real being was
outside time. Another character commented, "Ah, you are a true
philosopher!"

On its original publication in Tales Of The Knights Templar (New
York, 1995), edited by Katherine Kurtz, the last Time Patrol story,
"Death And The Knight," was doubly introduced by editor and author.
Kurtz wrote that, if time is fluid and mutable, then we must hope that
there are or will be Time Lords to perform policing tasks:

"...to
make certain that crucial aspects of our past are not changed, so that
all our yesterdays will unfold into our desired tomorrows...
"Poul Anderson writes of the Time Lords thus:..." (p. 273)

Anderson
does not use the term "Time Lords" but, in this passage, he does not
name the Danellians either. He writes of "...the superhumans who dwell
in the ages beyond..." (p. 274)

There is much scope here for creative sequels.

The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly — and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.
-copied from here.